* The GOP is rebuking President Donald Trump after he debased the U.S. intelligence community during a summit with Russian leader Vladmir Putin in Helsinki, Finland that included an international press conference and tete a tete on Monday.
Trump said he did not see any reason Putin would meddle in the 2016 election and inserted the Hillary Clinton email scandal to deflect from the issue at hand.
The question from the reporter was “Who do you believe?” “Where is the server?. . .All I can do is ask the question. . .He just said it’s not Russia. . .I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be, ” he said when directly asked about Russia’s proven election meddling.
Putin said that Trump did mention the 12 Russians that were indicted in the Mueller investigation and he would look into it, claiming he did not know much about it.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle condemned Pres. Trump for not condemning Putin in a joint press conference where he had an opportunity to express The U.S. Instead, he praised Putin and dismissed U.S. intelligence reports released in 2017 that confirmed Russian meddling in the 2016 election, further stoking skepticism that he colluded with Russia as asserted in the Mueller probe.
Trump went on to say that the probe is a disaster and came about as a reason why the Democrats lost the election. He emphasized that there was no collusion on his part, which did not come up in the question. This is an attempt to make the story about the validity of his presidency rather than what it’s really about–an affront to democracy and the potential to compromise national security.
Virginia Democratic Mark Warner, expressed a top ranking member of the Intel Committee wants lawmakers to be briefed on the meeting.
“He basically kowtowed to the Russian leader — a Russian leader who doesn’t respect the rule of law, doesn’t respect free press, that puts his political opponents in jail … and somehow he’s seeming to be siding with him rather than our NATO allies and European allies,” Warner said.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called the president’s performance alongside Putin a “disgrace.”
“The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake,” McCain offered in a statement yesterday.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is one of few politicians who appear to be in support of Trump for which the president expressed his tanks in a tweet. Paul said there ever country does it and did not doubt Russians hacked and leaked emails, but wished to move on from this matter.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell affirmed Russia is a threat to the U.S. and their meddling in U.S. political affairs is “indisputable.”
Citizens have also expressed outrage about Trump praising Putin. An organization dedicated to impeaching Trump aired a new ad today pointing to disloyalty to the country as an impeachable offense.
This controversial incident has stunned the core Trump team into silence. As per usual after a major news event, neither his cabinet nor members of his advisory circle came to Trump’s defense by doing rounds in network news. The White House has been quiet about the fall out all day. A press briefing was not scheduled today. The President was scheduled to meet with members of the Ways and Means Committee today at 2 PM/EST and addressed the fall out from the Helsinki trip ahead of that meeting.
Today the president is telling a different story. On to the moment of “truth”. . .
President Trump addressed his unpatriotic remarks blaming them on an omission of the word “not.” Trump recanted the comments he made in Helsinki and claimed he accepted the intelligence report on Russia’s election hacking, yet he contradicted himself saying it could have been others.
“I have full faith in our intelligence agencies. (The lights then went off momentarily and he jokingly said it was the intelligence community.) . . .Let me be totally clear, I accepts our intelligence community’s conclusion that that Russian interference. . . took place. Could be other people also, there’s a lotta people out there.”
He said he reviewed a clip of an answer he gave in Helsinki and realized there was a need for clarification.
“In a key sentence in my remarks I said ‘would’. . .
The sentence should have been ‘why it wouldn’t be Russia.’
Yet, in the sentence in question, his voice did not change to suggest he was asking a rhetorical question.
As a reminder, he said he believed Putin because he had denied the tampering so “strongly.”
Warner said he does not accept Trump’s explanation and he should have said it to Putin.
At a brief press conference ahead of said meeting, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell affirmed Russia is a threat to the U.S. and their meddling in U.S. political affairs is “indisputable.” McConnell said he was certain about what happened in 2016 and “it better not happen again in 2018.”
Short of apologizing to the nation for his actions is there anything the POTUS can say to make sense of his seemingly disloyal deed? (Keep reading for the legless “spin” of the century.)
Even Putin finally told the truth about undermining our election process in Helsinki.
At one time Putin denied having anything to do with the 2016 election. During the presser via an interpreter, he admitted that he wanted Pres. Trump to win and wanted his people to influence the election (i.e., meddle) because he wanted the U.S. and Russia to restore relations back to the way they were.
The cozy relationship Trump has enjoyed with the Congress over the last year has ended with many GOP political leaders saying they are outraged that he sided with a chief adversary.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Ohio) made it clear that he does not respect Russia, but refused to name President Trump in his remarks.
The sentence should have been I don’t see any reasaon why it wouldn’t be Russia.
“Vladmir Putin does not share out interests. We just conducted a year long investigation into Russia’s interference with our election. They did interfere in our elections. It’s really clear. . .Russia is trying to delegitimize democracy,” said Ryan, adding that Russia has tampered with elections in other countries.
“We have tremendous talents within our agencies,” he concluded.
Mona Austin is a Multimedia Journalist who specializes in politics and entertainment. The DC-area based writer is an independent White House Correspondent and owner of Jireh Communications Group. Austin got her start as an online contributor at EURweb.com.
The Louisiana native can cook some mean catfish, but never enjoys it herself because she is allergic to seafood. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow Mona on Facebook at Mona King Austin and Twitter at 4True.
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